Please write a Paragraph answering to this discussion below with your opinion:
The knowledge of the foundation and history of nursing can
provide us a context in which to understand current nursing care because it
gives us a broad idea of where and who our profession began with. Nursing has
been a part of communities for a long time whether it was taking care of one’s
neighbor or bandaging a soldier’s wounds. Florence Nightengale used her basic
nursing skills and knowledge to involve a push for more sanitary conditions for
soldier’s healthcare in the British military. Her work was noticed because
families and soldiers could see that what she was doing was actually working,
causing less unnecessary deaths. This is how nursing was put on the map and was
respected by the community. Florence used data and numbers and statistics to
save lives. (Hood, L. J., & Leddy, S. K. ,2006).
If we do not have a solid knowledge and understanding of the
roots of nursing we can do our job on a day to day basis, however if the time
came to make a change and improvements for our patients we may not have the
skills to do it. Nursing theories allow us to continue to direct our nursing
care and keep a direction in which we want our careers to go. We can dig deep
into our nursing practice and find out what it will take to make a change. We
can grow as nurses by referring back to original thoughts and ideas of the
nursing theories and try to understand what nursing means to us. (Hood, L. J.,
& Leddy, S. K. ,2006).
Three trends I see in nursing practice from “Nursing
Timeline of Historical Events” is caring for those who cannot care for
themselves, taking care of the environment to benefit the individual and
education . Several of the very first names in nursing, including St. Vincent
De Paul focused their work specifically on the poor and dying. These people are
those who need us the most, they are unable to take care of themselves and need
extra attention. This has influenced my day to day nursing care because I see
people at their most vulnerable and I have to remember these people are scared
and it is in my hands to not only care for them as a nurse but also offer
emotional support. The sanitation of a patient’s environment is also a trend I
saw in the history of nursing especially in nursing careers like that of
Harriet Dame, who worked hard to advocate for the military to have sanitary
areas to be treated, sanitary nursing supplies and adequate surgeons. This is
important to me in my nursing care because we are always doing more and
learning more to prevent hospital acquired infections for our patients. Whenever
doing a sterile dressing change always making sure I take my time as to not
harm my patients, or even just offering a patient a shower/sponge bath and
cleaning their sheets. Finally,I found many of these historical nurses were
involved in education of new nurses and passing on of their skills to others.
This is very relevant to me as I am always wanting to learn more in my nursing
career and am working on my BSN to continue my education. ( “Nursing timeline
of historical events n.d.”)
Refrences
Hood, L. J., & Leddy, S. K. (2006). Conceptual bases of professional nursing (6th ed.).
Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
